+Source.+--North's _Lives of the Norths_. Vol. i., pp. 288-291. Bohn
edition.
"Noisy in nature. Turbulent at first setting out. Deserter in
difficulties. Full of tricks. Helped by similar friendships. Honesty,
law, policy, alike."
This, to conclude, is the summary character of the Lord Chief Justice
Jeffreys and needs no interpreter. And since nothing historical is amiss
in a design like this, I will subjoin what I have personally noted of
that man; and some things of indubitable report concerning him. His
friendships and conversation lay among the good fellows and humorists;
and his delights were accordingly, drinking, laughing, singing, kissing,
and all the extravagances of the bottle. He had a set of banterers, for
the most part, near him; as in old time men kept fools to make them
merry. And these fellows abusing one another and their betters, were a
regale to him. And no friendship or dearness could be so great in
private which he would not use ill, and to an extravagant degree, in
publick. No one that had any expectations from him was safe from his
public contempt and derision which some of his minions at the bar
bitterly felt. Those above or that could hurt or benefit him, and none
else, might depend on fair quarter at his hands. When he was in temper
and matters indifferent came before him, he became his seat of justice
better than any other I ever saw in his place. He took a pleasure in
mortifying fraudulent attorneys and would deal forth his severities with
a sort of majesty. He had extraordinary natural abilities, but little
acquired beyond that practice in affairs had supplied. He talked
fluently and with spirit; and his weakness was that he could not
reprehend without scolding; and in such Billingsgate language as should
not come out of the mouth of any man. He called it "giving a lick with
the rough side of his tongue." It was ordinary to hear him say, "Go, you
are a filthy, lousy, nitty rascal;" with much more of like elegance.
Scarce a day passed that he did not chide some one or other of the bar
when he sat in the Chancery: and it was commonly a lecture of a quarter
of an hour long. And they used to say, "This is yours; my turn will be
to-morrow." He seemed to lay nothing of his business to heart nor care
what he did or left undone; and spent in the Chancery court what time he
thought fit to spare. Many times on days of causes at his house, the
company have waited five hours in a morning, and after eleven, he hath
come out inflamed and staring like one distracted. And that visage he
put on when he animadverted on such as he took offence at, which made
him a terror to real offenders; whom also he terrified, with his face
and voice, as if the thunder of the day of judgement broke over their
heads; and nothing ever made men tremble like his vocal inflictions. He
loved to insult and was bold without check; but that only when his place
was uppermost. To give an instance. A city attorney was petitioned
against for some abuse; and affidavit was made that when he was told of
my lord chancellor, "My lord chancellor," said he, "I made him;" meaning
his being a means to bring him early into city business. When this
affidavit was read, "Well," said the lord chancellor, "then I will lay
my maker by the heels." And with that conceit one of his best old
friends went to jail. One of these intemperances was fatal to him. There
was a scrivener of Wapping brought to hearing for relief against a
bummery bond[20]; the contingency of losing all being showed, the bill
was going to be dismissed. But one of the plaintiff's counsel said that
he was a strange fellow, and sometimes went to church, sometimes to
conventicles; and none could tell what to make of him; and "it was
thought he was a trimmer." At that the chancellor fired; and "A
trimmer!" said he; "I have heard much of that monster, but never saw
one. Come forth Mr. Trimmer, turn you round and let us see your shape:"
and at that rate talked so long that the poor fellow was ready to drop
under him; but at last, the bill was dismissed with costs, and he went
his way. In the hall, one of his friends asked him how he came off?
"Came off," said he, "I am escaped from the terrors of that man's face
which I would scarce undergo again to save my life; and I shall
certainly have the frightful impression of it as long as I live."
Afterwards when the Prince of Orange came, and all was in confusion,
this lord chancellor, being very obnoxious, disguised himself in order
to go beyond sea. He was in a seaman's garb and drinking a pot in a
cellar. This scrivener came into the cellar after some of his clients;
and his eye caught that face which made him start; and the chancellor,
seeing himself eyed, feigned a cough and turned to the wall with his pot
in his hand. But Mr. Trimmer went out and gave notice that he was there;
whereupon the mob flowed in and he was in extreme hazard of his life;
but the lord mayor saved him and lost himself. For the chancellor being
hurried with such crowd and noise before him, and so dismally not only
disguised but disordered; and there having been an amity betwixt them,
as also a veneration on the lord mayor's part, he had not spirits to
sustain the shock but fell down in a swoon; and, in not many hours
after, died. But this Lord Jeffries came to the seal without any concern
at the weight of duty incumbent upon him; for at the first being merry
over a bottle with some of his old friends, one of them told him that he
would find the business heavy. "No," said he, "I'll make it light." But,
to conclude with a strange inconsistency, he would drink and be merry,
kiss and slaver, with these bon companions over night, as the way of
such is, and the next day fall upon them ranting and scolding with a
virulence insufferable.
[20] A mortgage on a ship.